Is propensity score matching causal?

A propensity score is a conceptually simple statistical tool that allows researchers to make more accurate causal inferences by balancing non-equivalent groups that may result from using a non-randomized design (Rosenbaum & Rubin, 1983).

How do you explain propensity score matching?

Propensity score matching (PSM) is a quasi-experimental method in which the researcher uses statistical techniques to construct an artificial control group by matching each treated unit with a non-treated unit of similar characteristics. Using these matches, the researcher can estimate the impact of an intervention.

Why you shouldn’t use propensity score matching?

Abstract: We show that propensity score matching (PSM), an enormously popular method of preprocessing data for causal inference, often accomplishes the opposite of its intended goal — thus increasing imbalance, inefficiency, model dependence, and bias.

What does propensity model mean?

Propensity modeling is a set of approaches to building predictive models to forecast behavior of a target audience by analyzing their past behaviors. That is to say, propensity models help identify the likelihood of someone performing a certain action.

What is coarsened exact matching?

“Coarsened exact matching” (CEM) is a design strategy that has been shown to produce good covariate balance between exposure groups and, thus, to reduce the impact of confounding in observational causal inference (1, 2).

What is common support in propensity score?

Common support is subjectively assessed by examining a graph of propensity scores across treatment and comparison groups (Figure ​1). Besides overlapping, the propensity score should have a similar distribution (“balance”) in the treated and comparison groups.

What is propensity score modeling?

The propensity score is the probability of treatment assignment conditional on observed baseline characteristics. The propensity score allows one to design and analyze an observational (nonrandomized) study so that it mimics some of the particular characteristics of a randomized controlled trial.

What is propensity score in data science?

The Propensity Score is a balancing score: conditional on the Propensity Score, the distribution of observed baseline covariates will be similar enough between the treated/control subjects.

How to estimate causal effects with propensity score matching?

The first step in the procedure for estimating causal effects with propensity score matching is estimating a regression model of exposure to treatment on a variety of confounding variables.

What is propensity score matching PSM?

Propensity score matching. In the statistical analysis of observational data, propensity score matching ( PSM) is a statistical matching technique that attempts to estimate the effect of a treatment, policy, or other intervention by accounting for the covariates that predict receiving the treatment.

What is propensity score and why is it important?

Propensity score helps with the fundamental problem of causal inference — that you may have confounding due to the non-randomization of subjects to treatments and this may be the cause of the “effects” you are seeing rather than the intervention or treatment alone.

Is regression or propensity score better for estimating the effects of treatment?

Historically, regression adjustment has been used more frequently than propensity score methods for estimating the effects of treatments when using observational data. In this section, I compare and contrast these two competing methods for inference. Conditional Versus Marginal Estimates of Treatment Effect